Shepherd – Ashley Has Done A Great Job – Financially

There was an excellent interview in the Chronicle yesterday of former Chairman Freddy Shepherd, and while we’ve been critical of Freddy in the past, that was on the financial side of things, and you cannot say he didn’t want to make Newcastle into a successful football club on the field.

Freddy Shepherd – when Newcastle Chairman
And unfortunately the opposite seems to be true with Mike Ashley, since the Billionaire has done a great job on the financial side of things, but we are nowhere near being as successful on the field as we were under Freddy Shepherd, who spent money we didn’t have, to get Newcastle into the Champions League.

And you can never accuse Freddy of not having great ambitions for the club – and the opposite is true with Mike Ashley – top ten is as good as it gets.

But one of the big problems when Freddy was Chairman is that we kept changing managers – much like Sunderland have done recently – and that’s never good, because you get so much churn of the players, and it’s hard to build a decent and stable side – and it wastes a lot of money too – as Sunderland are finding out.

Freddy was Chairman from December of 1997 through June of 2007, and we had the following managers in that time – Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit, Sir Bobby Robson, Graeme Souness, Glenn Roeder and Sam Allardyce – six managers in less than ten years.

And Freddie sacked all but Sam Allardyce – who had just been appointed when Ashley bought the club – and Ashley sacked him seven months later.

It turns out a lot of the things Freddy says in the interview seem to be spot on – here’s some of what he said:

“You want to be as high as possible in the league for two things – firstly for the glory and secondly for the money.” “Each position you are in you get more money, the money is a lot more now.”

“Financially the club are in a great position because Mike is a billionaire. There is no doubt money-wise there are any problems there.”

“He does run a tight ship, though.” “Sometimes you have to let the reins go a bit and relax a bit.” “Financially he has done a great job.”

“You have to face the music.” “There are a lot of hard decisions to make because you are dealing with people’s lives.” “Newcastle United are very important to a lot of people.”

“The welder, the bricklayer, they see Newcastle as their club.” “It is very important you try to keep his enthusiasm going” “At the minute where they are they are not going to be relegated.”

“They also had a great run to get them in the position they are in.” “I cannot see them being out of the position they are in now.”

“The main thing is the lack of communication.” “You cannot ignore the local paper. I never ever barred the local papers, it was counter-productive.”

“The only way to communicate is through the local press direct to your fan base. Mike is a successful businessman. Some of the fans would rather he was a bit closer to the club than he is at the moment.”

That comment about the papers is that Ashley has banned the Chronicle, Journal and Sunday Sun reporters since the papers reported on that Time 4 Change march over five months ago – and it seems incredible that ban is still in effect.

Freddy makes a number of good points above – and we really need somebody other than Alan Pardew to talk about what’s going on at the club – after all he’s only responsible for the playing side of things.

And Newcastle will be coming into a lot of money in the next few seasons, mainly through the Premier League, and if only Mike Ashley would commit to investing that money back into the club – we would be in a very good state.

And we could spend some big money in the transfer market – and still balance the books.

Communication has always been a problem with Ashley – because he says nothing – absolutely nothing.

And we are at least hoping that Lee Charnley will have good communication with the fans – but that’s likely only to be stuff he writes, as it seems only Alan Pardew will continue in front of the cameras and reporters – and that’s a pity.

Ashley has done a good job on the financial side, but fans want him to transform that into having a top team on the playing side of things – like we had under Freddy Shepherd.

Liverpool have managed ok changing managers on a frequent basis recently…we could have had Rodgers or Martinez if Ashley had any interest in creating a philosophy of actually wanting to see the game played properly….

Bugger all foundations have been laid on the footballing side of things and a distinct lack of preparation, coaching, tactics and winning mentality thanks to the inept set up headed by the clueless Pardew.

Whatever about Monster mash, there’s a level of honesty in him. He couldn’t care less what fans think and we know it. Shepherd is just one sleazy, grasping so and so. Who cares what he has to say. Yesterday’s man and skimming off the club profits for years with some woeful decisions to boot.

It wouldn’t have made any differece to the club’s direction or strategy who Ashley appointed as MD. As we all know, MDs do not have authority to instigate major changes to any organisation unless they have the approval and support of their Board or owner. MDs are usually appointed to do a job for an owner snd because their vision chimes with the owner. Thus, any major change in the club’s aims, strategy and spend would need the approval of Ashley. Without that, it’ll remain SNAFU!

All we can hope is that Chsrnley is able to exercise some vision and recommend changes that show ambition and that Ashley will accept them. And of course that Charnley’ll prove to be a lot more proactive, dynamic and slicker in the transfer market than his predecessors.

In honor of two dedicated Newcastle fans, who lost their lives supporting Newcastle United.

Their passenger jet was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday July 17th, 2014 by rebels, as they were traveling to support the team in New Zealand.

We will never forget them.

Health Update - 4 Aug, 2016

The good news last week was that after more blood tests my PSA count is still undetectable

This means the prostate cancer is still under control, and there is no trace of it in the body.

Now to be even more vigilant so I can see the Rafa Benitez project come to its fruition over the next few years - wouldn't want to miss that.

Howay The Lads!!>

Ed Harrison

What Is A Football Club?

What is a club in any case?

Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it.

It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes.

It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.

It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.